


Skinned Knees

by spacebromance



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 06:58:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1129685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebromance/pseuds/spacebromance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hikaru is twelve, and it's his responsibility to look after the eight-year-old neighbor kid, Pavel, during dinner parties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skinned Knees

Hikaru is twelve years old.

Pavel is _eight_ , which makes him, like, a _baby._ But Hikaru’s parents feel bad for Pavel’s parents, because they just moved into the neighborhood and don’t speak English well and don’t know anybody, so their families have dinner together twice a month. And of course Hikaru has to entertain Pavel every time.

It’s pretty miserable. Pavel can’t do anything right. He’s supposed to be some kind of genius—that’s what Mom says _Pavel’s_ mom says, anyway—but he seems kind of dumb to Hikaru. He never says anything; he just follows Hikaru around staring at him, like a total creeper. And he’s tragically uncool. His ears stick out and his elbows are always banging into things and his clothes never fit right.

Hikaru tried to get him to play catch, once, because any kid can play catch, right? But Pavel had been fumbling and awkward, and was always dropping the ball, and when Hikaru threw it Pavel didn’t catch and the ball hit him in the forehead.

His eyes had teared up a bit, and he’d sniffled a lot, but at least he hadn’t _cried_.

So now they play video games. Or Hikaru plays video games and Pavel watches, because Hikaru only has one controller and he doesn’t want Pavel ruining all his saves. He’d probably do something stupid like run off a cliff or get blown up and think it was funny.

They’re still playing the game when Hikaru hears the door shut downstairs, and then two sets of feet climbing the staircase. It’s Yuki and Kairi back from the mall.

His oldest sister, Aiko, is in college, but Yuki’s got her driver’s license, now, and thinks she’s too cool for everyone else. She’s always going out for dates and shopping and movies. Sometimes she takes Kairi with her, usually for Chekov Family Dinner Night, but Mom and Dad never let Hikaru go if Pavel’s coming over, which is always, because he has to ‘stay and keep him company.’

Life is so unfair.

“Pavel!” Yuki says, pushing into Hikaru’s room. Hikaru rolls his eyes. “Oh, look at how cute you are, with your precious curls! I could just eat you up!” She pinches Pavel’s cheek, and Pavel shies away just a bit, pushing closer toward Hikaru, but Yuki doesn’t seem to notice.

“You’re supposed to _knock_ ,” Hikaru complains, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“You’re supposed to let your _friends play_ ,” Yuki sing-songs in response. “It’s rude not to share.”

Hikaru is mildly insulted by the assumption that Pavel is his ‘friend,’ but he punches the power button on his game and throws the controller down. “C’mon, Pav. Let’s go outside. I got a new skateboard and I want to practice.”

Pavel, as usual, follows without saying anything.

Hikaru actually isn’t very good with the skateboard. He only got one because Tony from school said it was cool, and he’s doesn’t like it that much—he thinks it’s actually kind of scary—but it’ll look cool to Pavel, even if he’s not good at it. Hikaru isn’t even sure they _have_ skateboards in Russia.

“Do you want to try it?” Hikaru asks, setting his skateboard down on the pavement and giving it a practice roll.

Pavel shakes his head vigorously.

“Are you sure?”

Pavel blushes, and shakes his head again. His mop of curls sways with the motion.

“Your loss.”

Mom and Dad won’t let him practice in the street, even though he’s told them, like, a thousand times that he knows how to watch for cars. So he has to practice in the driveway, instead, which is sort of steep. He rolls sideways instead of down the driveway, balancing carefully and practicing turning this way and that. He feels really unsteady, but Pavel watches him from his seat on the grass, and Hikaru thinks he looks a little impressed.

Eventually Yuki leans her head out of her bedroom window. “ _Share,_ Hikaru! You’re such a jerk. You never let Pavel do anything!”

“I _offered_ to share, Yuki! I’m not stupid! He said no!”

“Does he even want to play with your stupid skateboard?”

“I’m not making him sit out here with me. He can do whatever he—“

The skateboard hits a groove in the pavement, throwing Hikaru a bit. He throws his arms out to regain his balance, but as he does so the skateboard turns, so that he’s aimed down the steep driveway instead of cutting safely across it.

“Whoa, _whoa,”_ he says, flailing madly as the board begins to roll underneath him. He’s trying to figure out how to get _off_ without tripping and skinning his hands and knees horribly against the pavement, and he doesn’t even _notice_ the car coming until he’s almost at the end of the driveway, almost in the street. And then someone yanks on his shirt and he falls backward and the skateboard sails harmlessly underneath the wheels of the oncoming car.

Hikaru falls in a heap on the ground, landing on his tailbone a little harder than he’d like, but largely unhurt. There’s a huff behind him as Pavel falls, too, and they both stare at each other in shock.

“You— _saved me_ ,” Hikaru breathes.

Pavel stares at him like he’s just as surprised by this as Hikaru is. Then he opens his mouth and shouts “ _Yomayo!”_ in high-pitched, squeaky Russian.

“Oh my god,” Yuki says from the window. “MOM. DAD. HIKARU ALMOST GOT HIMSELF RUN OVER BY A CAR.” She disappears further into the house, presumably to relay this information.

“You _saved_ me,” Hikaru repeats, breathless.

Pavel nods, smiling like he’s intensely proud of himself, and says—in stilted but surprisingly coherent English—“How will I find out what happens in level twenty-two if you get hurt?”

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for an anonymous prompt request: "chekov&sulu as kids and chekov skins his knee!" Someday I will actually fill a prompt the way the prompter asks. I really was writing this with the intention of having somebody get a skinned knee (I was pretty sure it was going to be Hikaru), and then I was just struck with the image of Pavel ‘catching’ Hikaru and shouting Yomayo! in his little eight-year-old squeak, and, like. I couldn’t not. I’m sorry.


End file.
